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Class _^AlLA02iL 

Book <~2> 5 

Copyright N° _ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE FARMER'S POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

"THE DEAD HORSE IN OUR SPRING 
BRANCH." 

Farmer Dan Luke's Exposure of Cotton 
Marketing, 



The relief necessary and demanded. His 
written address to the United States Congress in 
behalf of the cotton farmer. His address to 
President Wilson dealing on the "TRUST" ques- 
tion. Also his address to the farmer. 



H3]qo*r<9 

.3 5 



©CI.A350124 

li.n I 



PRELUDE. 

"The Dead Horse in Our Spring Branch/' 
Suppose Dan Luke and Bill Bryant lived to- 
gether in a cotton-farm house, and a spring branch 
which runs by /their back door furnishes the 
drinking water. One bright, frosty morning, Bill 
crawls out about sun-up, takes the gourd, and 
when he lifts the water to his mouth, he discovers 
that the water stinks. Dan is given the alarm by 
Bill and the two trace up the branch to see what 
is the matter. They find a dead horse in the 
branch. To purify the water that runs by their 
door both Bill and Dan rightly agree to take the 
horse out of the branch and parry the carcass over 
the hill. 

Now, the dead horse, so far as the farmer is 
concerned, is the fact that he is not represented, 
in the slightest degree, in saying what his cotton 
brings on what is called the cotton market. To 
get rid of this dead horse, or at least to fumigate 
him, the efforts in the following pages are dedi- 
cated. Yours sincerely, 

DAN LUKE, 
Occupation, Farming Cotton. 
(Copyright, 1913, by F. J. Bivins.) 
The contents, each item, chapter and cut of 
this book, are protected by copyright, and must 
not be reprinted without the author's permission. 
May, 1913. 



(Note by the Author.) 



We want each reader of this book, if he agrees 
with its contents, to become a member of the firing 
line, and see that other people buy the book. We 
are not able to wage the fight without your help. 
We, like you, are of moderate means. The issue 
raised herein is of a political nature because our 
officials are elected by the people. We cannot get 
relief thru secret or farmers' eleemosynary organ- 
izations, Dan Luke having joined and helped them 
all in the uplift, and the relief can only come thru 
the institution of politics — our government. If 
you are from a cotton-growing state it will be 
unnecessary for you to write your Congressman, 
as he already knows your desires ; but, if you, dear 
reader, are from a non-cotton-growing state, your 
fairness of mind in writing your Congressman will 
repay you in the end. Every cotton farmer should 
have this book in his home. It is the beginning 
of the fight — gigantic if necessary — for a better 
system of marketing the nation's cotton. The 
book is worth the money. Won't you spread the 
news to your neighbors and ask them to be sol- 
diers ? Send other orders in quick. Read the book 
and you will. Send orders to 

F. J. BIVINS, 
Price, $1.00. Moultrie, Ga. 



PREFACE. 



It is the purpose of this book to awaken our 
people to the needs of a better system of market- 
ing America's greatest crop — cotton — and to urge 
our government to the necessity of action in giving 
the needed relief. The results to our farmers as 
a class is clearly and accurately stated herein. We 
are making no personal attack on the cotton ex- 
change, but are advocating good and wholesome 
legislation of a constructive character. Our prem- 
ises are well taken and conclusions are beyond 
question. The necessity of this book is apparent. 
The cotton farmer is not represented when it 
comes to fixing the price his cotton sells for, and 
after sweating under the present system of fixing 
the price for thirty years, his nose is still to the 
grindstone. It is no experiment with him. He 
has the butt-end of the log to tote and is not rep- 
resented on the cotton exchange. Dan Luke prays 
the blessings of the Lord will attend his efforts 
and asks the prayers of all good Christians. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

(a) The result to all classes of farmers in 
growing cotton. 

(b) Cotton problem is too big for one farmer, 
a county of farmers, a state of farmers, or all the 
farmers in the South, to correct by organizing. 

(c) System of marketing spot cotton exposed. 

(d) The Government helps every other class 
of industry and it is the duty of our Government 
to help us market our cotton intelligently. 

(e) The assistance required is an elastic cur- 
rency to relieve distress in cotton marketing. 

(d) Hazard and Thrift — Religious stench. 

(f) Distress cotton defined by Bill Bryant. 

CHAPTER II. 

(a) Dan Luke's address to the United States 
Congress. 

(b) Dan Luke's political speech. 

CHATPER III. 

Dan Luke's Address to President Wilson and 
his Cabinet. 




DAN F. LUKE 



CHAPTER IV. 

Dan Luke's Address to the Farmers. 

To raise funds to further the plans outlined 
in this book, and for the worth of itself, this book 
is sold and not distributed free, and we want 
the holder of this copy to sell his neighbors each 
a book. 



PRICE $1.00. 
Remit to F. J. Bivins, Moultrie, Ga. 

"Things that have lain dormant for years, 
once stirred, cause economical and political revo- 
lutions that are everlasting" 

The first six hundred and forty copies of this 
book have been mailed to the United States Con- 
gress, each Representative, Senator, President 
Wilson and each member of his Cabinet, all re- 
ceiving a copy. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Boy, Martin L. Bivins, Listens to 
Dan Luke. 

"May the Lord bless you, boy, that you will 
listen to Dan Luke; it is hard to get grown folks 
to stop long enough to look at you, much less lis- 
ten. It is a delight to look at your bright face, 
boy; and you are only twelve years old?" 

"Yes, Mr. Luke, I am twelve; but do let me hear 
you. My parents have read me the Bible since I 
was four, and since I could read I have read it 
thru, and I can tell right from wrong." 

"There, just to the point, Martin, right and 
wrong — there is a right way to everything, and 
there is a wrong way. I will tell you the story and 
ask you which is right and which is wrong. I am 
past the middle age, lank and lean and turning 
some gray, but am still well preserved, as you see. 
I am bred to the soil in Georgia, have reared a 
family of boys and girls and lived an honest life 
the best I could." 

"Right, Uncle Dan ; even all the school children 
know that you are an honest and upright farmer." 



10 



Our Spring Branch 



"Too quick, boy, to answer. It is not myself 
that I want you to answer for — it is my story. 
My story may seem a little long, but we will get 
thru with it in just a few minutes. It is about 
the burden of the cotton farmer. We live in a 
favored section; we are blessed in our climate, 
fuel and water ; our land is fertile and yields abun- 
dantly ; our Creator has been kind to us, has given 
us health, strength and abundant yields from our 
fields. There should not be a half-clothed, half- 
shod, half -fed man, woman or child in our fair 
land; and yet, my boy, out of 3,000 rural homes 
in our county, these conditions exist in one form 
or other in 2,900 of them. Why should this be? 
/ have found out where the evil is by my long ex- 
perience. I see the light, and that is what I have 
to tell you about." 

"Now, Martin, imagine that you are a man, 
for I want to argue the case between us two for 
the truth of the matter, and for convenience, we 
will arrange our discussion into subject heads, 
and we will have for our first heading : 



'Our Tales Beseeching/ 

"Let us go at the matter with a full under- 
standing. My name is Dan F. Luke, Postoffice, 
Meigs, Ga., and you are the oldest son of F. J. 



The Dead Horse in 11 

Bivins, Moultrie, Ga. We will base our tales on 
actual facts so that we can back them up with 
sworn testimony, if St. Peter should call upon our 
House of Congress, Representatives, Senators, 
and our President, for an accounting as to their 
stewardship. We will only mention a few names 
— one from the 100 that have the necessaries of 
life, one from the 900 who have a part of the nec- 
essaries of life, this 1,000 owning their land and 
having no interest to pay; one among the many 
that have bought their homes on terms, or bor- 
rowed from the long loan to improve with; one 
among the many that rent the land cultivated at 
so much per year; one among the many share- 
croppers ; from the best off down to the fellow that 
loses his mule; another his corn and existables 
of life for himself and family, by the foreclosure 
of chattel mortgages. Then we will show that the 
100, the 2,900 are all victims of either a gigantic 
trust or a faulty (rotten) system, which system 
is so thoroughly entrenched upon us that neither 
one farmer, nor five thousand farmers, nor the 
whole of the farmers in the Southern States, can 
correct. And that to correct the system that puts 
the burden on us our government will have to pro- 
vide us with an asset currency so that we can 
market our cotton intelligently." 



12 



Our Spring Branch 



Martin: "You are a patriot. You make no 
complaint of the supply or credit store which fur- 
nishes supplies at a usurious price, or the mule 
dealer that furnishes mules on credit, that cost 
about $150, at a cost to the farmer of $250 to $300, 
both or either taking a mortgage from the farmer, 
supplied on all the chattels in sight ; or the fertil- 
izer dealer, who takes a chattel mortgage on what 
is left ; nor do you complain that our farmer can- 
not get a little money from the bank, even after 
he has given satisfactory endorsements, except at 
the rates of 10 to 18 per cent ; nor do you ask the 
government to give us what is understood as rural 
credits." 

Dan : "Right you are, boy. Our supply stores, 
sales stables and banks are run just like all such 
stores, stables and banks are run throughout the 
cotton belt. And while the American nation may 
be benefited by the rural credits, we can do with- 
out the rural credits in the cotton belt and put up 
with all the evils amongst us, if evils they be, if 
we can only market our cotton crop intelligently. 
You see, the cotton crop matures in the fall and is 
thrown on the market all at once, to the tune of 
six hundred million dollars worth — four times as 
much as the spinners want to buy at once. Pande- 
monium runs wild. We have to sell for what we 



The Dead Horse in 13 

can get to keep the sheriff off us, and the results 
of such a system is best told by actual results 
to us." 

RESULTS TO US. 

One Out of "100 Best-off" Farmers. 

Facts given by Mr. Alexander Hall, Moultrie, Ga., 
Route 5. 

Owns 200 acres of land, paid for and owes no 
money, and does not borrow or buy on credit. 
Runs three plows; has eight children. Hires no 
labor, but works children as laborers in fields. 
Dresses himself and children in only ordinary, 
common clothing, and has the necessities of life. 
Makes an average of twenty-five bales of cotton a 
year, but when he sells has no say-so as to price he 
is given, but everything he buys is priced by the 
other fellow. 

"I live at home; I buy clothing, shoes, flour, 
coffee, sugar, and fertilizer, for which I pay cash. 
I am a 'diversified farmer,' as taught by the news- 
papers. I have not had any providential misfor- 
tune. I want to make some money and have tried, 
but cannot do so growing cotton. I am sore on 
cotton farming, as it is impossible to be a thrifty 
citizen and grow cotton. There is no wage in it. 



14 Our Spring Branch 

You cannot grow cotton to profit by hiring your 
labor, and where a man does not work his children 
from six years of age up in the field, he cannot 
come out of debt and also have the necessities of 
life. He could not do it if his neck depended 
on it." 

"There is only one way for a planter or farmer 
to make money with the use of hired labor, and 
that is to have a grab or commissary and keep 
books — always careful that no laborer exceeds his 
account, and making sure that at the end of the 
year he has gotten it all, and his labor has 'just 
live^/ as one would say. I am talking about white 
farmers and planters, and it is useless to mention 
the negro. It is no secret that practically all 
negroes on farms in Georgia are simply peons. It 
is impossible to be otherwise under the present 
system of marketing cotton. We have to grow 
cotton, as there is no market at all available for 
getting cash out of other crops, beyond the local 
demand. I am fifty-three years old and want to 
sell my farm and go somewhere else out West and 
try my luck. It is not the Southern white man's 
fault. The fault is the system of marketing cot- 
ton under distress." 



The Dead Horse in 15 

Another Out of 900 "Best-off" Farmers. 
D. A. Mashburn, Doerun, Ga. 

Runs two plows. Works only himself and 
children. Is a diversified farmer, growing all his 
eatables at home, except flour and sugar. His 
labor is done by himself and three sons. One son 
is of age and will farm for himself during this 
year, 1913. 

"I give my average income and expense for ten 
years and show how I now stand : 

"My expenses for family of seven: Clothing, 
$100.00; shoes, $50.00; flour, sugar, coffee and 
other necessities, $100.00; swapped old stock for 
younger, average per year, $30.00 ; improvements, 
building, fences, etc., $100.00; for church and 
school purposes, $70.00; insurance premiums, 
$63.62; fertilizer, $100.00; taxes, $75.00; new 
tools, average, $50.00 ; make from 8 to 14 bags of 
cotton and handle from $500.00 to $700.00 per 
year. Average outlay above $738.62. I keep 
books. Here they are. 

"You ask how can one pay out more than was 
taken in. I will explain: I sold my timber to 
make the improvements with for the $100.00 item 
mentioned, and this winter borrowed from N. Y. 
Life Insurance Company $125.00 on my policy. I 
paid my twenty-one-year-old boy $75, and my 



16 



The Dead Horse in 



bank account now is $10.00. You see, in the past, 
I had money in the bank at times of from $100.00 
to $500.00, from the sale of my timber. That is 
spent living at home, economically, providing ordi- 
nary clothing and doing without what was wanted 
except necessary things; have not kept even 
growing cotton. People can talk and theorize, but 
I have been and am 'going to mill/ I owe no 
money and have no interest to pay. I can borrow 
money from the bank, or buy on credit. I have 
grown cotton in the past to buy those things that 
I do not grow or make, but after ten years of good 
management I am now compelled to grow cotton 
to pay my running expenses. I run behind to the 
tune of about 2 cents a pound on my cotton. 

"We farmers will have to quit buying, or debts 
will get us and ours. What makes Georgia seem 
to be prosperous is that millions are loaned each 
year from long loan agencies for periods of five to 
ten years. If I had a long loan interest to pay I 
would have to give up right now. I could only 
afford jeans for clothing, and work barefooted. 
The long loans are procured by farmers to square 
up with. There is no money in growing cotton 
at 15 cents a pound, and even at that price a 
farmer could only get the necessities of life. At a 



Our Spring Branch 17 

less cost he cannot. I would say I am above the 
agevrage farmer." 

One Who Borrowed to Improve With. 
A. P. Tucker, Moultrie, Ga. 

"I own my land, run four plows and work 
my children as laborers. We make an average of 
thirty bales of cotton a year. I borrowed from a 
long loan company to improve with. After paying 
taxes, fertilizer, clothing and shoes, I have no 
money left. When my five-year loan fell due, I 
had to borrow from another loan company to pay 
up with, and had to borrow a little more this time 
to fill up the hole caused by trying to have part 
of the necessities of life. There is no money in 
growing cotton for me, but there is nothing else 
that I can grow for market except stuff for a home 
market, and this is limited. I have no money now 
and will have to borrow from the bank or get 
goods and supplies from a credit store." 

One Among the Renters. 

Freeman Griffin, P. 0., Autreyville, Ga. 
Has three children and runs one plow. Makes 
from five to twelve bales of cotton, averaging eight 
a year : 



18 The Dead Horse in 

"I can read and write and have been able to 
school my children so they can read and write, 
and have sent each one to school twelve months. I 
have no money and have to go in debt to get the 
supplies we do not grow at home. We all wear 
plain clothing and have never been able to accu- 
mulate." 

One of Best Share Croppers. 
D. S. Mead, Age 53, Autreyville, Ga. 

"I have been a share cropper and shared with 
different landlords. I have six children living 
with me, two others grown and left me; one a 
renter and one a share cropper. 

"The first landlord I was with two years and 
left him with a little corn and bacon. No money. 

"Was with second landlord two years, and left 
him with 50 bushels of corn and 300 pounds of 
bacon. No money. 

"The third landlord I was with three years, 
and left with 50 bushels of corn and 500 pounds 
of bacon. No money. 

"Was with fourth landlord a year and left with 
75 bushels of corn ; no bacon. No money. 

"Fifth landlord had me three years. Left with 
75 bushels corn and 500 pounds bacon. No money* 



Our Spring Branch 19 

"The sixth landlord I was with three years. I 
left him with no corn, no bacon, no money, and in 
debt $20.00. 

"Was with the seventh landlord a year. Left 
with 100 bushels corn; no bacon; no money, but 
out of debt. 

"Was with eighth landlord one year and left 
with 150 bushels corn, 800 pounds of meat, and 
no money. 

"The ninth landlord I was with two years. Left 
him with 125 bushels corn, 800 pounds meat and 
$50.00 in money. 

"The tenth landlord I was with one year. Left 
him with 75 bushels corn, 500 pounds bacon and 
no money. 

"Was with the eleventh landlord two years, 
1911 and 1912, and left him with 100 bushels corn, 
500 pounds bacon, and in debt $130.00. 

"Have been able to give each child twelve 
months' schooling, so each can read and write. 
Can read and write myself some." 

P. O., Doerun, Ga. 



Runs two plows ; works children in field as la- 
borers — girls and boys. 

"My horse died and I had to get another horse 
on creHit to work the land with. Made good crops, 



20 The Dead Horse in 

lived economically, plain clothing and no luxuries 
— doing without many necessities. In fall 1912, 
my creditors did not give me time to gather all my 
cotton to pay as far as I could, but the remainder 
of my cotton was levied on in the field, and also 
my corn and potatoes were levied on and sold by 
the sheriff. Having lost all my eatables, the pur- 
chaser felt sorry for me and gave me the sweet 
potatoes." 

— Hartsfield, Ga. 



Do not despair; thousands keep you company. 
You gave your note to the supply store and the 
fertilizer dealer, and on pay-day sold your cotton 
and paid as far as it would go. The man that 
holds your note that has never been paid has given 
you a bad name, and you live in hopes to pay some 
day, maybe, this year. You and your wife wear 
common clothing and your children wear no shoes. 
Feel cheerful, old boy, for Jesus is your friend. 

Dan: "Now, Martin, we have given a true 
illustration of the results of the sum total of our 
efforts as cotton-growing farmers. What causes 
such results? It is the unfair system that has us 
bound worse than slaves, like felons — yea, strong- 
er than with chains and balls. What it costs to 



Our Spring Branch 21 

make a pound of cotton is not considered, even to 
the extent of a feather's weight, in the fixing of 
the price it brings on what is called the cotton 
market. Nor has the farmer, the producer, any say- 
so whatever, in what price he gets for his prop- 
erty — cotton. Such a system leads to uncertainty, 
poverty and in wholesale suffering for the neces- 
sities of life among the cotton farmers — for the 
men, women and children. The condition of the 
100 who have the necessities of life does not alter 
the situation. They are victims of the system 
too. They sell their cotton without representation 
as completely as do the 2,900, although his cotton 
is not distress cotton at any time of the season. It 
is true that he is only 1 to 29, but the 29 suck him 
in the suckhole. He ultimately is compelled to 
sell, and when he does he has no say-so as to price. 
He is without representation, too. The Southern 
farmer is one-third of the American nation, and 
the position he is placed in is beyond his control." 
Martin: "You are right, Mr. Luke; the system 
makes all the white farmers slaves. They part 
with their goods for not what they can get, but 
for what they are given. This is true of the white 
farmer. The system makes him a slave. This is 
more true of the negro. He was once a slave, and 
now he is worse off than a slave. This is a coinci- 



22 The Dead Horse in 

dence. My grandfather owned hundreds of them, 
but they got the necessities of life. They had 
warm clothing in winter, shoes, and all they need- 
ed to eat. My grandfather treated them just as 
well as you treat your horse ; gave all a good, com- 
fortable house, and substantial, necessary feed. 
Now the negro is worse off — ninety per cent of the 
negro farmers being only share croppers, under 
the white man, who is now a slave to the system." 
Dan : "Hang the 'nigger.' He is alright in his 
place. Why, there is not ten 'nigger' farmers out 
of 500 in the whole county who can procure a bar- 
rel of flour. He is allowed his peck of meal and 
seven pounds of bacon for his week's ration, and 
you bet the 'nigger kids' sho' am proud when 
blackberries and watermelons come in. How in 
the dickens can we figure for the 'nigger,' when it 
is the white man's battle to keep the sheriff off 
him and his?" 

Martin: "Excuse me, Mr. Luke; I am sure 
that 'Uncle Tom' meant good when he wrote his 
cabin book?" 

Dan : "There, now; your town school learning 
has got me up in the air. So, Martin, we will just 
let the 'nigger' be." 

Martin : "Thank you, Mr. Luke." 



Our Spring Branch 23 

Dan : "The ability to market our cotton intel- 
ligently is beyond our control. It will require the 
great arm of the American nation thru national 
legislation to remove from us such a condition. 
The system of marketing the nation's greatest 
crop would be a disgrace in the tolerance of the 
Turkish empire. It is a system that reduces the 
tiller of the soil to uncertainty in his business, to 
poverty, to ruin. It is a system that injures every 
citizen and business of America, financially, mor- 
ally and religiously. How can there be an over- 
production of wheat on our Western wheat farm- 
ers when there are millions of mouths in the South 
that can't afford a round of biscuits once a week?" 

Martin : "You are right there. The same is 
true of cotton. Our Southern people alone would 
consume twice the amount of clothing and shoes, 
than they do if they could have what is neces- 
sary. There is no such a thing as over-production 
with half the world half -clothed." 

Dan : "Hold on, boy. The South cannot grow 
or pick enough cotton to clothe its share of the 
world's trade. But discussing and estimating this 
idea is unnecessary, for I will show you whether 
it can or can't, it has got nothing to do with the 
way I propose for the government to help us. That 
is with the soundness of my plan." 



24 The Dead Horse in 

Martin: "But, Mr. Luke, won't you please 
show why the farmer cannot turn the bear loose 
without the government's duty being called upon, 
before you give us your plan?" 

Dan : "Alright, boy. I will show you that the 
cotton system is too big for one farmer — too big 
for a county of farmers — too big for a state of 
farmers — and too big for all the farmers in the 
South to help him or themselves to a square deal, 
and then we will go into my plan. 
"Cotton Problem Bigger Than One Man." 

"Dan F. Luke grows a bag of cotton, hauls it to 
Meigs, Ga., to market and offers to sell same. A 
local man who is a cotton buyer (similar buyers 
are in all the towns throughout the distress cotton 
season), samples the bale and offers Dan 8 cents 
per pound. Dan says: 'I want 10 cents per 
pound. It cost me 10 cents to make it/ Buyer 
says : 'You can't have but 8 cents/ and forthwith 
produces a telegram showing that 8 cents is the 
price on the cotton exchange. Dan, if he sells, has 
to take 8 cents, and if he does not sell that day and 
comes again, he still has to take the exchange 
price on whatever day he sells the bale of cotton. 
In other words, the cotton problem is too big for 
Dan or any other one farmer. Boy, you have 
never sold a bale of cotton. Well, sir, it is a sheep- 



Our Spring Branch 25 

ish transaction. Whenever I sell a bale of cotton, 
sowehow, I always feel like I have stolen some- 
thing." 

"Cotton Problem Too Big For a County op 
Farmers" 

"The farmers of this, Colquitt county, Georgia, 
will organize, build a cheap metal warehouse, store 
their cotton in it, meet and each pledge to hold his 
cotton until he gets 12 cents per pound — the cost 
of production — or better. W. H. Bryant, of Moul- 
trie, Georgia, fully intends to hold, but when a 
note he owes falls due October 1st, and payment 
is demanded, he is forced to sell his cotton at ex- 
change prices — say 9 cents per pound — to meet 
his obligations. And what happened to Bill hap- 
pens to two-thirds of the remainder, and just a 
few days more the bunch is cleaned up. They have 
to sell to pay debts incurred in growing this cot- 
ton. I call cotton that the owner is forced to sell 
'distress cotton/ It follows, then, that the cotton 
market problem is too big for a county of farm- 
ers." 

"Problem Too Big For State of Farmers." 

"The farmers in the state of Georgia organize 
into county units, all willing and agree to hold. 



26 The Dead Horse in 

Their operating expenses, fertilizer, clothing, 
labor, taxes, etc., have to be paid. Distress cotton 
furnishes all the spot cotton needed at exchange 
prices. ,, 

"Problem Too Big For All the Farmers in the 
South." 

"Mr. H. J. organizes the farmers into what is 
called a cotton association. He assumed to be the 
dictator and bluffed and ordered cotton held for 
15 cents. About half the farmers got organized. 
The fight was on. Farmers refused to sell at 10 
cents, even if the sheriff got them. The cotton 
exchange held tight around 10 cents, and it is an 
actual fact, Martin, that the spinners put repre- 
sentatives among the spot cotton and paid from 1 
to 1 1-2 cents per pound more than the cotton ex- 
change said the price was. This occurred almost 
the whole season. Then was when I began to sit 
up and look, and now see the light. H. J. retired 
off of the map. I hear nothing of him now. 
Whether he got messed up on either side of the 
market, or whether he became a cotton gambler in 
the deal and got rich, I do not know. The farmers 
organized under a new name. My farmer neigh- 
bors say hold for a living wage, but they never 
get it. Ever since the one time, above noted, the 



Our Spring Branch 27 

exchange price is the boss. They propose to hold 
and market cotton as needed by spinners. The 
same thing happens to them as happened to our 
county. A national organization of farmers is 
alright for many eleemosynary purposes, but they 
are helpless to market their cotton as an organiza- 
tion. All efforts have failed. If you will pardon 
me, I will gcess why. Most of the well-to-do, the 
100 kind, will not join, because they know the 
farmers cannot live up to any such pledge, and the 
latter is in such large numbers he cannot be organ- 
ized to hold cotton, and if successful, it would be 
in violation of the law by combining to fix the 
price. Their efforts in this matter have to be 
open. They have no institution like the cotton 
exchange to run behind with the appearance of 
competition. The whole of the farmers cannot be 
organized to a working basis — only a part can be. 
The organization begins to die out before every 
county is organized. It takes lecturers and or- 
ganizers to visit each militia district, and before 
they get around the first get cold feet, the organi- 
zation begins to get smaller, and all the arganiza- 
tions pass into history. Now, if the farmers could 
be organized successfully, and if it is not against 
the law to combine to fix the prices, he could not do 
so, because his cotton is distress cotton. Why, boy, 



28 The Dead Horse in 

take for instance, Georgia. The balance of trade is 
running against us. Our people have to send more 
money out thru the merchants and other chan- 
nels than is brought in from the sale of our crops. 
The cotton is used as money to settle balances 
which are made to mature just at the time cotton 
should appear. Now, boy, suppose the farmers 
held their cotton at the point of the bayonet for a 
living wage; that would bankrupt the merchant 
right on up the line." 

Martin: "I see, Mr. Luke. Unless the gov- 
ernment gives us an asset currency, it would be 
impossible to hold the cotton and market it, as 
needed, intelligently. It takes a cash circulating 
medium to pay debts and settle balances. We have 
to sell our cotton and cannot hold it to market as 
needed. You have shown conclusively that the 
farmer cannot turn the bear loose. But, Mr. Luke, 
why can't the farmer issue mloney to be redeemed 
when the cotton is sold?" 

Dan: "We might issue, but it would not be 
money. Only the government can issue money. 
We have given that power from us and given that 
power to our government." 

Martin : "Now, Mr. Luke, let's have your plan. 
Argue fully each phase of the case, please, sir." 



Our Spring Branch 29 

Dan: "We have shown conclusively that the 
cotton farmer cannot as an individual or part of 
an organization, have any say-so as to what his 
cotton sells for. It is the purpose of my argument 
to expose the method of marketing the nation's 
cotton crop, having previously shown the evils 
thereof, and to show the fairness and necessity of 
a better system, which can only be had thru the 
recognition by the national government by legisla- 
tion, which legislation will be to the great advan- 
tage of the American nation. Also to show the 
proper legislation that will place America where it 
should be, to build up our manufacturing indus- 
tries in cotton goods, to the end that in addition to 
growing the raw cotton we will manufacture the 
cotton goods of the world. It is not the intention 
of this argument to ask special favors, but in in- 
sisting that the government must come to the aid 
of the cotton farmer to give him a square deal. 
The asset currency must be available to the uses 
of the American manufacturers on the same basis 
when needed." 

"Exposure of the Method of Marketing the 
Nation's Cotton." 

"How the spot cotton is bartered and the 
prices fixed or underwritten on the exchange is an 



30 The Dead Horse in 

interesting story within itself; and without mean- 
ing any harm to any name mentioned, but only to 
arrive at the truth, I proceed. 

"During the fall of 1912, a firm under the 
name of 'E.' operated a branch office in Moultrie, 
Ga., to buy cotton. This firm failed and it was 
given out that the failure was due to the fact that 
the head officer had visited England during the 
summer and sold cotton to the English mills which 
he was unable to deliver at the price agreed upon. 
We understand all the exporters sell spots 
ahead in a similar manner. Under the present 
system we do not blame the exporters, for it is 
clear to see that it is better for him to combine 
with the spinner than to buck the spinner thru the 
exchange. Selling spots ahead; that is, before 
the cotton is bought, and then get among the 
farmers and buy the spots by juggling the market 
on the exchange, is the safe way to operate. The 
gambler can win more surely, if he himself works 
the cards. 

"So 'E/ goes to England makes a contract to 
deliver so many bags of cotton when the young cot- 
ton bolls open, and are ready in shape, at an 
agreed price. Now when 'E/ and others get among 
the farmers, he does not ask the farmers to trade 
with him. 'Nixie/ The agreement between 'E/ 






Our Spring Branch 31 

and the spinner is the only bargain and sale made; 
the farmer is not represented and has to take 
what 'E.' gives him, which is fixed by the cotton 
exchange. Now we arrive naturally as to how It 
is done thru the cotton exchange. Hanged if I 
know ; I have never seen any leak. All that I know 
is that Dan Luke or Bill Bryant or any other cot- 
ton farmer is not represented on the exchange, 
and most of them only know it by name, if they 
have ever heard of it at all. I have heard that 
'E.' covers his deal by futures and his purchaser, 
the spinner, does the same. We will naturally 
conclude then that, when the distress cotton ar- 
rives in sight, the spinner sells his cotton on the 
exchange and 'E.' buys it on the exchange, thereby 
fixing the price under cover, out of view of the 
law on combining to fix the price. Any difference 
on the exchange is settled for in cash." 

Martin: "That transaction is positively a 
combination, even if it is not aggravated. By ag- 
gravated I mean if the future market was not fur- 
ther controlled by overselling the crop — it being a 
notorious fact that there are many more bales 
sold on the exchange than are made. Of course, 
this excess is done to further control the market, 
and to buck the professional gamblers in the cot- 
ton future market on the exchange." 



32 The Dead Horse in 

Dan : "As to how 'E.' got embarrassed is hard 
to figure, but it must have been that there was a 
marginal difference between spots and futures 
and the cost of delivering, and his operating cap- 
ital could not protect him. The spinner could not 
lose. He bought at a figure for spots to use in his 
manufacturing business and hedged on the ex- 
change. If spots and the exchange went above 
the agreed figure the spots would cost more and 
the difference on exchange in his favor was taken 
in by him. There now, I have got it backwards. 
I mean what he loses on the exchange he gained 
on spots. This thing is all messed up anyhow, 
and it will take an examination by our govern- 
ment into the bpoks of the members of the ex- 
change by competent auditors to figure it out. All 
that I do know is that the exchange is a combina- 
tion of something to fix the prices. It does the 
stunt, too, Martin. Who in the dickens would say 
that the cotton exchange price is fixed by the nat- 
ural buyer of cotton, selling cotton? I do and I 
know what I am talking about. Should this ex- 
change be tabulated? I should smile. Just let 
some one suggest it and the thing is baffled. 
Maybe trying to make it a state institution by 
Governor Sulzer, of New York, will fool somebody, 
but not your Uncle Dan. Martin, I demand tha 



Our Spring Branch 33 

interstate business is operated and that the Na- 
tional government must do its duty and give the 
public the benefit of publicity. 

"During the fall of 1912 the exchange cut a 
'dido/ The heavy rains of late summer damaged 
the cotton crop materially, and the low run of 
prices on the exchange was so out of proportion 
with the damage, that the professional gambler 
came on the exchange and upset the playhouse. 
Sometimes a Brown or Sully shows up to grab a 
loaf floating around — 'bull the market' — and the 
latest fad is to put them in jail. But I defy any 
man to show where our Dan Lukes and Bill Bry- 
ants have ever fixed the price of their cotton, 
either at home or on the cotton exchange or to 
foreign countries. The devil may argue that Dan 
and Bill are sleeping over their rights and it is 
their fault, for if they put up a margin they can 
buy and sell, the same opportunity is extended to 
Dan and Bill as is extended to the foreign spin- 
ners. We know such argument is from hell and 
the deviPs mouthpiece knows that it is as impossi- 
ble for Dan and Bill to operate on the exchange 
as it would be for a spinner to look old Balaam 
under the tail down the rows of a cotton field 
without having a sunstroke. I am not fighting 
the gambler, boy, the professional gambler is the 



34 The Dead Horse in 

only thread that keeps Dan and Bill in hopes of 
escape from the lion's den. The gambler is the 
only balance wheel in the great cobweb surround- 
ing distressed cotton. If the gambler was out of 
it, the buyer thru his connection would hold for 
cotton as cheap as he could get, and may the Lord 
spare the day when the well organized spinners 
are turned loose on the cotton farmers, with their 
distressed cotton, with no gambler to reach for 
the pie and create competition. What does the 
gambler know about growing cotton or what it 
costs to grow it? What does he care? All he is 
after is pie. He knows that spinners have to have 
so many bales as a minimum and that cotton is 
short. He takes a shot. How high does he shoot? 
Only so high that he knows the spinner will pay 
more than he pays after the distressed cotton is 
swiped in. So let us have the gambler unless the 
government will help us to a better system of mar- 
keting our cotton. I am arguing my case, Martin, 
so let the exchange be. Let the government give 
us elastic currency to meet the crop requirements 
in marketing and then we will invite the spinners, 
the backbone of the exchange, to do business with 
us in the name of the exchange or some other suit- 
able name, on a fair basis. We only ask our rights 



Our Spring Branch 35 

and I will discuss it under heading of our govern- 
ment duty. 

"Our Government Duty. 

"In the year 1913, the Panama Assembly 
passed laws to encourage the growing of cotton 
in Panama. 

"The British nation spent thousands to en- 
courage and aid the growing of cotton in Egypt. 

"Suppose every farmer in the Southern States 
could and would stop growing cotton. Don't we 
know that the American government would have 
to do about, because the balance of the trade in 
America's favor created by cotton exports would 
be wiped out, and in the course of time the whole 
United States ruined? Then to protect itself in 
such a contingency by direct aid being necessary, 
it follows it is proper to put safeguards around us 
as a nation by simply aiding our cotton farmer to 
market his crop intelligently. The government 
gives aid to nearly every known line of business 
except cotton. It gives aid to many large indus- 
tries in marketing its products. It furnishes 
money as a medium of exchange for ordinary 
transactions, but not enough to meet the enor- 
mity of cotton in volume. It recognizes the dis- 
tress of financial institutions by legalizing clear- 



86 The Dead Horse in 

ing houses which issue certificates that float 
around as money. There has never been an emer- 
gency in the financial world that is as great as 
the emergency in distressed cotton, which occurs 
once each year. The government aids our capital- 
ist and aids our labor. It puts a tariff on foreign 
manufacturers which gives our manufacturers 
the home market. It has arbitration in the matter 
of wages for our labor, yet our cotton farmer is 
ignored. The government arbitrates thru a com- 
mission the passenger fares and freight rates of 
our railroads. Now justice demands that it being 
right and proper it hejp and direct the cotton 
farmer so he can market his cotton intelligently. 

"The only aid that we ask is that the govern- 
ment provide us currency based on the cost of 
producing cotton, so that we can market our cot- 
ton intelligently with such safeguards as are safe 
and fair. 

"The need for more money to operate on in the 
'90's which discovered the Hon. W. J. Bryan, was 
never any greater than the need for operating 
money with our distressed cotton farmer is in the 
fall of each year. The financial disturbance of 
1907, which brought forth an order from Presi- 
dent Roosevelt to issue money on other securities 
than government bonds, was only a gnat com- 



Our Spring Branch 37 

pared to the great needs for money issued to re- 
lieve the farmer which occurs among the distress 
cotton in the fall of each year. The need exists 
here. The cotton farmer needs cash to pay his 
debts. He needs a loan for, say, about six months, 
more or less, at living rate of interest. This loan 
could be secured either by direct loan or by a col- 
lective loan, either by names of many substantial 
farmers and negotiated thru the postal savings 
bank, or otherwise, provided a low rate of interest 
be obtained." 

Martin: "I see, Mr. Luke, it does not mate- 
rially matter with you how it is done, just so the 
goverment furnishes money so that we can market 
our cotton intelligently. Therefore, since you 
have studied the best way, I would like to have 
your plan." 

Dan : "Dan's plan is for asset currency, to be 
available thru the postal savings banks or other 
more convenient agencies, at 6 per cent per annum 
to defray expenses and create a sinking fund. To 
be loaned to either the farmer individually, di- 
rectly, or to associations of farmers into small 
groups collectively, and we may call the system 
Rural Credit or Emergency Banks. The money 
so loaned could be retired before the expiration 
of nine months from the beginning of the cotton 



38 The Dead Horse in 

season. My plan will provide that eighty per cent 
of what it costs to produce a pound of cotton be 
available to any farmer on cotton ready for the 
market. What could be sounder? What it costs 
to produce a pound is as good as gold itself. Cot- 
ton has to be had to clothe mankind. If there was 
no cotton it would have to be made. What it costs 
to make a pound of cotton is sounder than gold 
and only eighty per cent of this cost would pro- 
vide the elastic currency needed, to be retired 
when the cotton is sold for foreign gold. The 
gold it fetches goes first into the United States 
treasury, and second, the balance over goes to the 
farmer selling the cotton. You see, my plan of 
issuing money is much sounder than any known 
plan upon which any money issued by the govern- 
ment now or heretofore, is, or has been, based 
upon. The sound value of my money would be 
5-4, or 1-4 greater than the face of the money, not 
counting the reasonable profit that the cotton 
would bring above first cost. My plan goes fur- 
ther than the needs of the farmer. Let's extend 
it to American cotton mills. Let them have the 
eighty per cent of the cost of producing a pound 
of cotton at 4 per cent interest to hold their stock. 
Do you see what this would do? The money of 
our spinners could be turned into additional plants 



Our Spring Branch 39 

and machinery and furnish the elastic currency- 
needed, and in a decade the cotton goods of the 
world would be spun by American mills. Now, if 
cotton mills are like the Jew merchant, who is 
afraid for his town to build as such a thing would 
bring him competitive merchants and if our Con- 
gress desires to hear them and not give the alastic 
currency to American mills, we will let that be up 
to them — for they do not have to have it. Our 
manufacturers do not have to be increased, but 
our farmers must have the elastic currency to 
market their non-perishable distressed cotton in- 
telligently. A bale of cotton housed will be good 
one hundred years. I have known of cotton held 
for twenty-five years, ordinarily housed. It was 
good and sound the last I saw of it. 

"Asset Currency. 

"Hon. W. L. Douglas, ex-governor of Massa- 
chusetts, has recently written on this subject, and 
his statements in regard thereto have been pub- 
lished throughout the country. His main conten- 
tion is that the United States should have an elas- 
tic currency based on commercial paper, the paper 
to represent the conversion of goods from the 
manufacturer sold to the retailer for distribution 
to the consumer; that such paper represents 



40 The Dead Horse in 

money and that the government should provide a 
means by which the bankers of the country can 
draw money on these bills of exchange ; that when 
the bill is paid the money issued thereon is re- 
placed in the U. S. Treas.ury, thus retiring the 
money that became in use to float the transaction. 
His arguments are well taken, and sound in prin- 
ciple and some means should be provided by which 
the manufacturer can secure this elastic medium 
to carry on his business. 

* 'Every argument that can be used in the adop- 
tion of a system as advocated by Mr. Douglas is 
applicable to the cotton farmer and his bale of 
cotton. As soon as the farmer picks, gins and 
bags his cotton, hauls it to a warehouse for sale, 
that cotton is in transit to the consumer and rep- 
resents sound value in the shape of a marketable 
asset. The consumer, in the case of a bag of cot- 
ton, is the manufacturer. That is, I am willing 
to assume, the currency issued to carry this asset 
should be retired when it is being used up into 
goods by the manufacturer. Then the currency 
as advocated by Mr. Douglas, can be available if 
the demands of business require it. Now, the ne- 
cessity or demand for the currency to carry the 
bag of cotton exists already, when the cotton gets 
to the warehouse for storage or sale, and my whole 



Our Spring Branch 41 

argument is based on the fact that this or similar 
currency should be available to the farmer on an 
equitable basis, which is discussed herein. I have 
conclusively shown that the cotton crop as mar- 
keted at present is not a market of bargain and 
sale, and being no market of bargain and sale, it 
becomes distress cotton, and therefore all the cot- 
ton marketed in the Southern States is done so 
under distress. Therefore, the cotton market, as 
at present operated, does not admit of a bargain 
and sale, and any business that excludes a bar- 
gain and sale between the producer and consumer 
is no business at all, and if the cotton farmer, as 
the system of fixing the market for cotton now 
prevails, is either the victim of a gigantic trust or 
the victim of a faulty system that would not have 
even been tolerated by Moses when the children of 
Israel were marching thru the wilderness. It is 
nothing but fair, and justice demands the United 
States government become the Moses to put the 
business of the cotton farmer out of the ruts of 
such an uncertain system. We see when the bag of 
cotton is in the warehouse and is an asset of sound 
value that must be realized upon by the producer 
thereof to carry on his business, as the system 
now prevails the only way he can realize, is to sell 
his bag of cotton at the exchange price, thus dis- 



42 The Dead Horse in 

barring him from holding it to get what he re- 
gards as a fair price, and all such cotton upon 
which the farmer has to realize upon is forced to 
be sold, becomes distress cotton. The fact of dis- 
tress exists here — the average mill is not in shape 
to buy it during the months of September, Octo- 
ber and November, its full twelve months' run, 
that is to buy enough cotton to meet its needs for 
twelve months thereafter, and those mills that are 
able, hesitate, and those mills that cannot, owing 
to a lack of cash money, are not willing to pay 
what the cotton is actually worth to them. It 
follows, then, that the farmer with his distress 
cotton becomes a supplicant, the prey of the sys- 
tem. 

"The principle of issuing asset currency to aid 
the farmers in marketing their currency is sound. 
The basis of the currency issued is sound. This 
issue, to be based on what it costs to produce the 
cotton ready for the spinner in gold or its equiva- 
lent in gold units, makes the currency as sound as 
can be. Any amount of currency should be avail- 
able as needed, the issue not to exceed the cost of 
production which can be arrived at as discussed 
hereafter. 



Our Spring Branch 43 

"Arrival at the Cost of Production. 

"Let the governor of each state, thru its secre- 
tary of state or agricultural department prepare 
such blanks as may be needed and have every 
farmer answer the proper questions to arrive at 
the cost to each; then by using tabulated re- 
turns by the proper division the cost of producing 
a pound of cotton can be arrived at to a decimal, 
which is as close as anything under the sun can be 
arrived at. One might say this will not work, for 
it costs more one year or less one year, as the case 
may be, to produce a pound of cotton. Fiddle- 
sticks ! Don't you know what we are after is the 
present, not the past or future, and that the cot- 
ton crop is used. up from year to year, and any 
such slight variation as to cost of production from 
year to year, if any should be, will only show and 
be taken care of from year to year as ascertained ? 

"Heroes in the past ages or prophets in the 
future on this practical subject are not worth a 
hill of beans. What we want is for our needs of 
the present to be honestly met. 

"Hazard and Thrift. 

"Every statesman in America wants a thrifty 
citizenship, a thrifty people. Against this want 



44 The Dead Horse in 

the statesmen of America are allowing the en- 
emy of thrift, which is hazard, to sap the life- 
blood of the business from one-third of the Amer- 
ican nation. This third is the cotton farmer in 
the Southern States. 

"Why does a lottery sap the life-blood of 
thrift? Why did we banish the Mexican lottery 
from operating in our domains? The question 
needs no answer. A lottery or hazard demoralizes 
legitimate business, and if not wrong within it- 
self, has evil effects. The effects in a market, 
where it costs to produce a commodity is not con- 
sidered, in fixing the price such commodity sells 
for, is a hazard with attendant evils far greater 
than those attendant upon a lottery. The cotton 
farmers go in debt for guano, mules, and cash to 
operate on, frequently having to give a chattel 
mortgage on all his effects, which debts and obli- 
gations have to be met in the fall when his bag of 
cotton is ready. All of his obligations are a 
reality, up against him. The man who plays the 
Mexican lottery either loses or wins. If he loses 
he has already put up to lose. If the cotton farmer 
loses he is gone, unless he can bridge over to take 
a shot of going later. 






Our Spring Branch 45 

"The Elements that Produce a Sure Loss. 

"The farmers of all classes are natural bulls, 
from the time of Adam's son, Cain, they play the 
game and hope. The cotton farmer expects a good 
yield and a good price. In addition to the fixed 
charges of guano, taxes, etc., when his crop is 
growing, he feels that he can afford to buy from 
the supply store a pair of shoes for his wife and 
children, sugar for his coffee, flour to have biscuits 
once a day, contribute a little to schooling his 
children. He begins to be extravagant by getting 
the necessities of life. He ceases to have for 
breakfast only his hog meat fried, syrup and corn 
bread and a cup of coffee sweetened with molas- 
ses, and begins to buy in addition to the exist- 
ables the necessities of life. Just remember our 
'tales beseeching' — the 100 can do this but the 
2,900 cannot. What o travesty. The farmer who 
simply gets the necessities of life becomes extrav- 
agant, and this kind of extravagance ruins him. 
He just has to do without the necessities of life 
and exist. 

"Religious Stench. 

"The system is a stench to America and its 
Christian people. In a land of plenty we have 



46 The Dead Horse in 

half-fed and half-clothed citizens — men, women 
and children — and these same citizens would make 
America great if given half a chance. The relief 
in marketing our cotton should have been given 
thirty years ago, and then the hookworm would 
have been eradicated by properly allowing of 
children the necessities of life. There are right 
now, this season, not only boys but white women 
ditching and digging stumps barefooted in our 
county. Don't you thinik if we have any religious 
people at all, such a condition puts a stench on 
our government ?" 

Martin : "I saw grown white women digging 
stumps out of a field, barefooted. A friend of 
mine, who recently moved to Moultrie, was with 
me. He is a Christian and said it was a stench 
upon our government. ,, 

Dan: "We have proved it as we go, for the 
facts are real. We have shown conclusively : 

"First — The cotton farmer is a victim of either 
a gigantic trust to control the price of American 
spot cotton thru the appearance of competition — 
but not competition — the cotton excnange, or a 
faulty, rotten system. 

"Second — The government will have to come 
to his aid to give him a better system of market- 
ing. 




MARTIN L. BIVINS 



Our Spring Branch 47 

"Third — The aid required is only an elastic 
currency that shall be available to him to relieve 
the distress in marketing his cotton, in a similar 
manner that clearing house certificates relieves 
distress in financial matters. " 

Martin : "You have also shown that it is the 
duty of Uncle Sam to come to the relief of one- 
third of his citizens." 

Dan : "Thank you, Martin, it is not our duty 
to pray to our government, for our representatives 
are no gods, just men, but we can demand that 
the victimized cotton farmer must and shall have 
his dues. We ask this aid in the name of our- 
selves, as true-born American citizens, in behalf 
of ourselves and the welfare of our nation. Grow- 
ing cotton is the greatest single industry in 
America and we have a right to petition our gov- 
ernment for needed relief." 

Martin: "Let us petition our government. 
Every voting farmer will sign with us." 

Dan : "We will close this chapter as we have 
exposed the system, and will not confuse, and we 
will put this booklet in the hands of our president, 
cabinet officers, congressmen and senators, and see 
what the farmer's servants will do for the good 
of the farmers in the matter of necessary relief ?' 



48 The Dead Horse in 



CHAPTER II. 

Dan Luke's written address, mailed to the Unit- 
ed States Congress in behalf of himself and all 
other cotton farmers. 

"Gentlemen — I am what you call an ignorant 
man. Our congressman, now sitting with you, 
from the Second District of Georgia, Hon. S. A. 
Roddenberry, knows me and can stand my surety 
to you that I have no college education. If I had 
a college education, I would have never been a 
cotton farmer. I assume that I have convinced 
you I have no right to address you on any other 
grounds than that I am a plain farmer. I under- 
stand the tillers of the soil feed and clothe the 
world; that upon the farmers the balance of the 
world is a superstructure, as it were, the farmer 
producing the raw material and without the raw 
material nothing could be. The farmer uses his 
hands, seeds and ground that Divine Providence 
has given him to feed and clothe himself and 
family. 'By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt earn 
thy bread' is the Divine injunction, and from the 
beginning, the farmer is created a laborer. 

"While the cotton farmer fifty years ago was 
pursuing the Divine injunction, digging his living 



Our Spring Branch 49 

out of the ground, spinning his clothing on the 
old-fashioned spinning wheel and loom, tanning 
his leather with red oak bark in the home-made 
vat and making his shoes, modern civilization 
began to touch him — intended for his good. He 
is gradually pressed into service until today he 
produces the raw material to clothe the world, or 
that portion who wear clothes. He has become a 
powerful factor in that civilization which touched 
him. The world has progressed under his magic 
touch of cotton produced to make substantial and 
fancy goods. The farmer is still digging, digging 
faster, laboring harder. The government has 
agents in his Militia District urging him on, to 
the end that he can make more yield from his 
ground. He is digging, his children are digging, 
his wife is a laborer in the field, and she is doing 
the drudge work of the house, day in and day out, 
without change or rest. I certify to you that we 
are doing the share of the world's work allotted 
to us down here. 

"It is true our spinning wheel is done away 
with and the cotton factory does its work. Our 
tan bark is not now used by us, the shoe factory 
has taken its place. We sell our raw cotton and 
buy our clothes and shoes, and a money basis be- 
comes the medium of exchange. The farmer is 



50 The Dead Horse in 

now doing what you gentlemen call 'business/ 
He grows his cotton and gets money with which 
he pays for his clothing and shoes; if he gets 
enough. • 

"Gentlemen, I am an ignorant man and only 
know from experience. Up to about forty years 
ago this 'business/ as you call it, Worked pretty 
well. When a farmer had bales of cotton, buyers 
would come to trade for it. If the buyers and 
farmer could agree the trade was made. This 
money basis of exchange worked finely. About 
thirty years ago the bargain and sale method of 
handling cotton disappeared. No buyers came 
and the farmer hauled his cotton to town. Instead 
of being asked what he would take, he was told 
that something that is called the cotton exchange 
had already said what he must take. Now, I may 
be mistaken as to about when the price began to 
be fixed thru the cotton exchange, but I am not 
mistaken as to when the price as fixed thru it be- 
gan to get the upper hand of the farmers. That 
is the time when this thing you call 'business' was 
flumigustered, marooned, as you might say, and 
became no business at all. 

"We have naturally, then, arrived up to the 
subject; kind o' skidded up to it, as you might say, 
the question I want to have a heart-to-heart talk 



Our Spring Branch 51 

with you fellers about. I know without seeing 
you that among the whole of you there are no 
two faces exactly alike, and my preacher says that 
while this is true, it is equally true that the brain 
or mind of each one is different from all the rest, 
but I assume, gentlemen, that there is just as good 
a principle in arguing to you as there is in argu- 
ing to a petty jury of my fellow citizens, as is done 
at home here, and although no faces and minds 
are alike, that mankind can come to a mutual 
basis of right and wrong thru the impulses of the 
heart, and it is the heart-to-heart talk with which 
I hope to convince you that my brain is right and 
sound and get your brain to work on my subject. 
"It is not my purpose to attempt to give you a 
school boy declamation upon the principles of 
government. I presume you hear such efforts in 
your every-day sessions. But it will be necessary 
in order to place my heart and your hearts to a 
mutual understanding for me to impose upon your 
indulgence, certain discussions and facts, which 
it is presumed you are well posted upon. Asking 
your permission, we will have to call your atten- 
tion to certain facts with which you are thor- 
oughly familiar, so that we can arrive at mutual 
conclusions from the premises. 



52 The Dead Horse in 

"First — We will consider the position of the 
cotton farmer, who is geographically and climati- 
cally limited to the Southern states. Since the war 
of the 60's, by discussing his position in the state 
of Georgia, and while taking Georgia alone for 
convenience of discussion, the same conditions ap- 
ply to all the cotton-growing states. To be con- 
crete, I will discuss this position under the two 
well understood propositions of his indebtedness 
and his political exploiters, attempting to do so 
without feeling and with an effort of kindness. 

"His Indebtedness. 

"He is in debt and it is not to be wondered at. 
His creditor is in debt, his county is in debt, his 
state is in debt, and his state is known as a bor- 
rowing state. These conditions exist at all nor- 
mal seasons of the year; that is normal business 
known as commercial business and finance. 
Georgia's money crop is cotton. From the posi- 
tion of self-existence, the Georgia farmer is 
forced to grow cotton. One farmer may stop 
growing cotton, but if all the farmers in Georgia 
were to quit — but it is useless to discuss this as 
you agree clearly it would be impossible. The be- 
ginning of Georgia is indebtedness, as well as the 
beginning of the farmer is indebtedness, and 



Our Spring Branch 53 

there is no other crop that we can adapt ourselves 
to that would approach in volume to offset the bal- 
ance in trade of our state like cotton does. From 
our financial environments we are forced to grow 
cotton. It is a pleasure to grow cotton, to see it 
grow and be gathered, and we have no objection 
to growing cotton within itself. But to grow this 
cotton, we, as a whole, have to do without the 
necessities of life and live in the most common 
way ; on only the rough existables of life, or we go 
in debt further from year to year. 

"Normally, the best I can figure, it costs eighty 
millions of dollars to make Georgia's cotton crop, 
and if Georgia was not a borrowing state and had 
its share of money it would only have twenty mil- 
lions of dollars with which to make it without bor- 
rowing. So, supposing for the sake of the argu- 
ment, Georgia was out of debt and its farmers 
were out of debt and the state started a clean sheet 
with twenty millions on hand. Before the cotton 
crop was gathered there would have to be bor- 
rowed sixty millions of dollars. So we conclude 
that not only the Georgia farmer has to grow cot- 
ton but that to grow the said cotton he has to go 
in debt. Now, there may be a few exceptions 
where farmers do not go in debt, but conclusively 
the Georgia farmer as a whole or collective sense 



54 The Dead Horse in 

is compelled to go in debt. If some hundred do 
not have to go in debt there are some others that 
have to go in debt more than their share. Now, 
gentlemen, I am thinking that you must have 
come to a mutual understanding with me on this 
important subject and in leaving it to take up 
political environments of the cotton farmer, I want 
to stress upon your memory that we will come 
back to this indebtedness later in the discussion to 
enable us to deduce the proper conclusions. 

"Our Political Environments. 

"The condition of the farmer in relation to the 
business world is one that is not understood by 
either the city man or what you call the business 
man. The farmer's world is as distinctly to itself 
in its custom of thought as it is in actual manual 
labor. I am afraid that it will be hard for me to 
explain the difference as clearly as should be so 
you can readily understand what I mean by saying 
he is entirely different in his mental activity, but 
it can be best said that like seeks like. The farmer 
sees his crop grow, is interested in discussing the 
methods of seed selections and proper cultivation, 
and naturally associates with other farmers with 
whom he can discuss his mind's fullness. These 
people become a world to themselves. They be- 



Our Spring Branch 55 

lieve the whole world should be honest and a man 
should be regarded as honest until he is proven 
guilty. He is taught from the pulpit that he must 
obey the commandments and love his neighbor as 
himself. The main thing about a farmer is that 
he knows many wise things but is unable to ex- 
press in words all he does know in a set speech 
or argument, and as a consequence he seldom says 
anything unless he knows all about it. This faith 
in mankind makes him an easy prey to the town 
politician, who plays on the farmer's honest 
thoughts to secure his votes. 

"The farmer voted for Hoke Smith for gover- 
nor because Mr. Smith appeared on the court 
house steps of our county with the charge that his 
opponents were members of a railroad ring, and 
promised them port rates, which meant, an honest 
rate of freight on his bale of cotton to the ports. 
Now, if Hoke Smith had said he proposed to give 
the farmer a dishonest or unduly low rate, the 
farmer would not have voted for him at all. All 
the farmer wants is an honest deal. The panic of 
1907 came on when Mr. Smith was governor. The 
town politicians of Moultrie mailed out all kinds 
of political stuff to the farmer, claiming it was 
straight facts sent to him to better post him, at 
the same time insisting that it was the greatest 



56 The Dead Horse in 

known truth that Hoke Smith was the cause- of 
the panic. 

"The farmer next time voted for Joe Brown. 
Understand there are a few exceptions and I am 
speaking in the aggregate. He elected Hoke Smith 
and then abandoned Hoke Smith and elected Joe 
Brown. I cite these two instances fresh on the 
minds of the voters of Georgia, and no doubt 
heard of in Washington, to show the honesty of 
purpose of the farmer in casting his vote in poli- 
tics and how his purpose is inflamed. 

"In the presidential election of 1912 the farmer 
was lining up for the Progressive (Roosevelt) 
party in Georgia. The Democrat town politicians 
got scared and put in circulation pictures of Mr. 
Roosevelt, with his arms around two black negro 
men. And, honest, if the farmers had not been 
intimidated on the excitement of the moment, 
Roosevelt would have received a 50,000 vote in 
Georgia, getting the farmer vote that was 
reached on his great reform movement for a bet- 
ter system of marketing. You see, the farmer is 
politically exploited and his honest mind, as to 
what he should do in voting, is played upon by 
politicians taking advantage of him by holding 
up something that is wrong in the farmer's prin- 
ciples of right and wrong. Gentlemen, I have sue- 






Our Spring Branch 57 

ceeded in showing you the farmer is different in 
his ideas of government from the town or city 
voter, as it bears directly upon the subject that 
the farmer is the security as well as the main- 
tainer of the American nation. 

"The Southern farmer knows there is some- 
thiing wrong, and I will best illustrate it by a con- 
versation had a few days ago with Mr. J. A. Barry, 
a good, substantial farmer of the Monk district,' 
a small country district of this county: 

"Dan: 'What might be your name? My name 
is Luke.' 

"Barry: 'My name is Barry; I live in the 
Monk district' 

"Dan : 'How did you like the talk of the gen- 
tleman at the court house today in telling us to 
prepare for the coming of the boll weevil?" 

'•Barry: 'I don't know; how did you like it?' 

"Dan: 'When Jonah warned the people of 
Ninevah, they believed and were saved.' 

"Barry: 'But when Noah warned them they 
did not believe.' 

''Dan : 'And then they were destroyed.' 

"Dan : 'I bet you voted Bull Moose, because I 
have found that all those well posted in the Scrip- 
tures voted that ticket.' 



58 The Dead Horse in 

"Barry : 'I will take the bet. I voted for Debs. 
I was the only man in my district that voted for 
Debs.' 

"Dan : 'Let me talk to you a little about the 
dead horse in our spring branch/ (Here we dis- 
cussed the case in condensed form.) 

"Barry: 'I have voted the Democrat ticket 
all my life, and have become so burdened under 
my load that I swore off, and went to polls and 
voted for Debs. I have always thought the trou- 
ble was where you say it is. Let's shake hands. I 
am with you. Go under it strong/ 

"Gentlemen, did you catch what Mr. Barry 
said? Mr. Barry is not alone. Ninety out of 
every hundred cotton farmers have the same idea 
about the dead horse; it just hasn't come out of 
his head thru his mouth. He knows it already 
without reading what we now say about it. He 
has sold his cotton and felt like something had 
been stolen from him. This seed of unrest is 
uppermost in the minds of these honest people. 
They are free-born Americans, the pride in this 
respect of all posted thinkers of our nation. Hardy 
and strong of sinew, with maximum endurance, 
and when united form an irresistible force for 
good. 



Our Spring Branch 59 

"The farmer wants constructive rights. He 
does not want to tear down. He believes in pro- 
tecting capital and labor and giving all a square 
deal. In his business activity he is not a grafter 
and in his social standing he is a world to him- 
self. These millions of American free-born citi- 
zens know to a man they are not getting a square 
deal as the cotton market is now represented. 
Under the present system any other race of people 
in the world would have been reduced to serfs. 
Gentlemen, it would be impossible to reduce these 
people to a state of serfdom. The uncertainty of 
their cotton growing in their business has re- 
duced them to where they can only afford the 
coarsest clothing for themselves and families and 
food to an existable basis, but the Anglo-Saxon 
blood beats in their veins and they know they are 
as good as any man that walks out shoe leather. 
The manhood asserts itself. 

"A system in which they are not represented 
in saying what price they get for their cotton, 
breeds among these peqple a discontent with the 
government. Now, suppose you add to the anar- 
chistic numbers that exist in the centers of busi- 
ness activity the minds and hearts of the true-born 
Anglo-Saxon, the cotton farmer? It is useless to 
call your attention to the fates of Carthage, Baby- 



60 The Dead Horse in 

Ion and Rome. Just put your minds on France, 
its downfall and riot when its bread supply was 
tampered with or neglected. On the other hand, 
how safe would our country and its institutions be 
in any emergency if these farmers are given a 
square deal and their cause of lack of faith in 
their government is removed? The question an- 
swers itself. 

"I do not mean to say that our government is 
gulity by any act of commission, but it is guilty by 
an act of omission, and the same was the case with 
the government of France. I doubly impress upon 
you that the Southern cotton farmer is the ulti- 
mate security of the American nation, and if he 
never became guilty of the sin of commission the 
most that could be expected of him is that he will 
be guilty of the sin of omission, and who could 
censure him ; his government has set the example. 
Gentlemen, you thoroughly see the farmers' polit- 
ical environments. The dead horse is in his spring 
branch. 

"I feel safe in saying that you who have fol- 
lowed me with your heart to my heart, agree with 
me that you are willing to give us legislation to 
give the cotton farmer a square deal. To those 
who do not agree with me, let me remind you of 
the difference between an educated man and a 



Our Spring Branch 



61 



wise man: an educated man is one who has gone 
thru the colleges to prepare him to see the truth- 
a wise man is one that sees the truth. So, my dear 
sir in the multiplication of diddles and fiddles, do 
not et your educated brain try to mislead us with 
all kinds of theories that may not touch the 
truth I want all of you to understand me: 

*irst— Do not do away with the cotton ex- 
change on the grounds that it is a gambling insti- 
tution for the gambler is the only spoke in the 
cobweb of the exchange system of fixing prices 
that protects a semblance to competition. Let the 
cotton exchange be. 

"Second-It being the system of uncertainty 

a to w7 + rt' WhGn a famer pitches hi * <*op 
as to whether he gets enough for his cotton to pav 

the cost of production or gets fifteen cents a pound 

makes him a gambler, and all gamblers are hope-' 

int W Tw t™ m ° re necess ™> the shear- 
ing time of his hope comes at market time and 

fromi 6 8 ° e l' " dGbt " m ° St Cases ' ^ stey in 

from season to season, with no pocket change to 

buy Susan and Ann a doll, and buddy a w£Jf 

ack for Christmas. I demand that you Z We 

Man n do v rmerS /r 8amhU »*> Mr - E « 
Man, do you see? Mr. Man that sits high in the 

church pew, do you see? Don't all of you see the 



62 The Dead Horse in 

evils of this gambling machine that is set up for 
us to play? 

"Rural Credits. 

"I now desire to burden you for only a few 
minutes on the subject of a book which you have 
been so kind as to send me on the subject of 
Rural Credits. In this book your educated re- 
porters say that it would be a good idea to pro- 
vide some means by which the farmer can get 
cheaper money with which to produce his crop. 
He suggests a whole county of farmers get to- 
gether and give a joint mortgage on their farms 
that are appraised at, say, one million dollars, and 
that on this mortgage these farmers borrow from 
some capitalist, who owns *me hundred thou- 
sand dollars worth of bonds and these farmers 
then can get together and deposit the bonds with 
the government and draw one hundred thousand 
dollars on this one million dollar mortgage. If 
the farmers fell down on prompt payment, this 
mortgage on a whole county could be foreclosed 
and the property sold. I say a whole county, be- 
cause it will take most of the farm land in nearly 
every county in the South to be appraised at one 
million dollars. Now, gentlemen, when we were 
children, our mothers gave us enemas with soap, 







WILLIAM H. BRYANT 



Our Spring Branch 63 

but we have never seen it squished down a fel- 
low's throat in such large quantities. Is this the 
tommyrot you fellows dandle with in your delib- 
erations for the relief of the farmers? I desire 
to call your attention to the fact that if there be 
any wise men in your body, it is time such men 
take charge of the helm of the state. 

"Now, gentlemen, soap is soap, and will not 
get our dead horse out of the branch. Suppose the 
farmers in our county could muster two million 
dollars worth of land and the owners were willing 
to pledge it under a mortgage and you found us 
the man with the bonds, and we put it up and bor- 
rowed one hundred thousand dollars. When this 
loan fell due we would still have to sell our cotton 
to pay the debt, and our cotton would be distress 
cotton or we would lose, ten for one, by the fore- 
closure of our mortgage. Again, suppose your 
educated man devised new words and you enacted 
such laws that we could get the money needed to 
make a crop, you know when that loan fell due we 
still have distress. This loan would be called a 
consumptive loan, for we would eat it up in grow- 
ing the crop. It is not this kind of money that 
the farmer needs. We would not be safe in giving 
the mortgage, because cotton might not bring on 
the exchange the cost of production. This kind 



64 The Dead Horse in 

of relief would be like jumping out of the frying 
pan into the fire, and you clearly see is not the 
relief we need. Now, Mr. Educated Man, do you 
see the truth? 

'The government agent paid our county a visit 
in March, and in speaking to us farmers said: 
'The boll weevil will hit you by next year, and I 
warn you to get ready.' It is generally understood 
mankind is of three classes, the wise man, the fool 

and the , meaning crook. So, gentlemen, I 

hope each and all of you will meet me as honestly 
as I have met you and let's get together and be 
wise men on this question of the dead hbrse in our 
spring branch. 

"Conclusion. 

"I have shown you how, that in order for the 
farmers in the state of Georgia to make the crop 
of cotton, they have to go in debt eighty millions 
of dollars, and it cannot be helped. Our cotton is 
forced to be sold practically all at once, and it 
cannot be other wise than under this distress, un- 
less you relieve us. I have also shown you that 
what it costs to make a pound of cotton is as sound 
as gold itself, and that to issue us eighty per cent 
in currency of the amount it costs to make a 
pound of cotton would be sounder than sold be- 



Our Spring Branch 65 

cause the cotton would bring the gold for one- 
fifth more, at least, under the proposed system. 
I estimate it would not require over three hundred 
million dollars to give the relief. We will now sup- 
pose you are willing to give the relief, and you 
have honestly arrived at the conclusion if we can 
find the ways and means. I think I have shown 
in my book, which is submitted to you herewith, 
the most direct way. You can loan us bonds un- 
der my system and issue money on the bonds, and 
no one of you will say that you cannot issue bonds. 
No one of you will say that you cannot issue 
money on these bonds, and it only remains then, 
are you right at heart with us? 

"You see the ways and means and to satisfy 
any brother among you, who may be a stand-pat- 
ter or skeptic, it only remains to show you it is 
safe. You only loan us eighty per cent of the cost 
of production, not one hundred per cent, for, say, 
not longer than nine months. If we need it to 
liquidate our financial distress, and at the end of 
that time not a bale has been sold and the money 
replaced. What would happen? You have our 
notes and cotton as security and in addition there- 
to you can sell our horses and mules, personalty 
and realty. We will stop growing cotton and the 



66 The Dead Horse in 

portion of the world we now clothe will go naked. 
Will this happen? 

"In answer to this I say, you know this will 
not happen till Gabriel blows his trumpet for the 
last call. Do I hear you say that you are almost 
persuaded? But the government ought not to do 
anything that comes in competition with the 
banking interests of the South? In answer to 
this, my dear sir, you can get the written consent 
of practically all the banks in the South that 
they will be as proud of the relief of financinig 
the cotton crops as we farmers would be. 

"If a bank will not urge this needed relief it 
will be because it is dominated by an American or 
foreign spinner. This will be the only source 
from which objection will arise. Not from the 
commercial or natural business banks. This spin- 
ner will be as short of judgment as the Jew mer- 
chant who objects to building his town because 
other merchants might come in and divide the 
trade. He will say monopoly. I say to you, it is 
not monopoly to provide currency to carry on the 
industries of the country, and this cotton market- 
ing is the same as the cotton mill, and the govern- 
ment not only provides it currency to do business 
on, but spends millions of the people's money to 
protect his commerce. 



Our Spring Branch 67 

The pot cannot call the kettle black, and the 
right functions of a government is to give all cit- 
izens an equal showing. My plan does not limit 
the availability of my proposed relief to the 
farmer alone, but extends it to the American man- 
ufacturer, if he needs it to carry on his business, 
to carry his stock of cotton. I am frank to say I 
do not think any bank or mill in our section will 
protest this needed relief just to hold a little ad- 
vantage in proportion to the great need of put- 
ting the masses on the safe basis that they will 
not grow cotton at much loss, if any, and I merely 
give you the wisdom in these remarks to show that 
no sane objection can be had to aiding our cotton 
farmer to a better system of marketing our cot- 
ton." 

Martin: "You are right, Mr. Luke; you are 
preaching the gospel. Who says the Georgia 
farmer has no heart is mistaken. Who says Dan 
is not right is worse than wrong. Senator Hoke 
Smith thinks he is wise, but he must be just an 
educated man, or he would have seen the dead 
horse before now; Senator A. 0. Bacon has been 
lolling on a senator's salary all these many years 
and no thought of the farmer, and our bright 
lawyer-congressman, Anderson Roddenberry, 
from the Second District of Georgia, has been 



68 The Dead Horse in 

sending his speeches broadcast among his constit- 
uents and no suggestion has he given for relief. 
You say he spends most of his time when he is at 
home with the farmers, and you say he had a dis- 
pute about a negro? What did he do that for? 
Do you think he intends to vote us on the negro 
question, or the liquor question? That is just to 
soap us with his varying wrangles for politically 
exploiting us into voting him a life job in the 
$7,000 salary a congressman draws. Leaving the 
dead horse in our spring branch. I ask what bet- 
ter representation has any of the congressmen and 
senators from Georgia given the people of Geor- 
gia, and this question is extended to all the con- 
gressmen and senators from the cotton belt or 
cotton-growing people? Do they intend to buy 
our birthright with a few paltry garden seed? 
The growing of cotton is our financial existence, 
and marketing this cotton intelligently is our 
birthright. And yet the people have been ex- 
ploited in voting. Will our senators and congress- 
men continue in the sin of omission, and not take 
the dead horse out of our spring branch ?" 

Dan: "Wait, Martin, I have confined my ar- 
gument to sound business reasons and have fumi- 
gated this dead horse in our spring branch, but 
only our president and congress can take him out. 



Our Spring Branch 69 

They have the sole power of issuing currency or 
money and affording relief so that we can market 
our cotton intelligently. Boy, I did not intend to 
make a political speech, but this dead horse has 
been in my spring branch thirty years, and your 
enthusiasm forces me to the conclusion that it is 
necessary to pop a cap, as it were, under the Dem- 
ocrat party. They admit themselves they are in 
power, and it is to them we look first, and if when 
the next election comes around the dead horse is 
not out of our spring branch, we farmers will go 
.Progressive (spelled with a big P) ; to be short, 
we will go Bull Moose and let the jackass graze. 
Then, with the permission of these fellows who 
are in power, I will make my political speech, and 
if they don't please to permit, your Uncle Dan 
Luke will make his speech, anyhow. 

Dan's Political Speech. 
"Gentlemen , Senators, Representatives in Con- 
gress assembled — I mean you Democrat adminis- 
trators : I ask you what is a Democrat? Answer, 
one of you say one thing, the other of you say an- 
other. Senator Smith says a Democrat is like 
unto Hoke Smith ; Senator Bacon says a Democrat 
is like unto A. 0. Bacon. Speaker Underwood says 
it is one like unto Mr. Underwood. President Wil- 



70 The Dead Horse in 

son says a Democrat is one like unto him. Smith 
and Wilson say they are Progressive Democrats, 
and that Bacon and Underwood are reactionaries. 
Smith and Wilson say we will give you farmers 
port rates, and Underwood and Bacon say 'No, 
we will keep it like it is; we react/ Result, the 
farmer gets not a thing. Smith spells his progres- 
sive with a little p, and Bacon says, 'Let the in- 
terests that plunder the public alone ; don't bother 
them, they are my patrons/ So, gentlemen, we 
farmers are beginning to understand you, for we 
know that you know you are the administration/ 
"The Democrat is in power to run the govern- 
ment and the dead horse is in our spring branch. 
If the dead horse is in our spring branch when 
the next election comes off, can any of you fellows 
come before us and ask our suffrage? I answer 
no. I warn you in advance, gentlemen, that you 
need not come here before us asking us to divide 
up between the two, progressive with a little p, 
and the reactionary, and each of you say you tried 
but the legislation was impossible. We hold you 
as Democrats in administration bound, and your 
failure to give us the relief prayed for is an indi- 
cation that you cannot unite with your confeder- 
ates to give the farmer a square deal. 



Our Spring Branch 71 

"Upon your failure the South divides and the 
professional politician with his hired newspapers 
under the name of Democrat, will not be able to 
exploit us with the negro. When the Bull Moose, 
the Progressive with the big P, killed the bloody 
shirt in the North, it was one of the greatest 
things that ever happened for the good of the 
South. When the Bull Moose party cut the negro 
out of associating with it in the South, it gave we 
farmers an opportunity to vote on issues of vital 
interest to us, with a party just as white as the 
Democrat is. We farmers engage in no white 
slave traffic nor negro slave traffic, and I warn 
you that no Democrat party can put the negro on 
us, even if the attempt is made again. Let the 
Democrat party get dirty in Georgia again and 
we will expose to the world the Democrat rulers 
and the negro slave traffic is much worse than 
any white slave traffic can be that we hear of in 
the North. So, gentlemen, when you holler 'nig- 
ger' to us in the future you will get it flung back, 
'nigger' for 'nigger/ We are not going to vote in 
the future on the negro question. We have set- 
tled that, and no Democrat politician can ride us 
into office and hitch we free-born farmers to the 
gate post. This dead horse has got to come out 
of the branch, and there is no mistake about that 



72 The Dead Horse in 

question. The dead horse is the issue we vote on 
in the future, don't mistake that. Now, gentlemen, 
don't take what I say as a threat, it is meant as 
only the heart-to-heart talk that is made by me, 
and I hope you will take it as such. I think in 
warning you if you are wise you will heed, but if 
war is declared, you have that prerogative. If you 
say war, neither side can expect quarter. If you 
elect war, the blame is not on us, for we give you 
full warning. If you do not get the dead horse out 
of our spring branch you declare against us. You 
will not be able to turn the business world from 
Bull Moose to Democrat, either, because Bull 
Moose stands for better business than you do. 
You do not believe in protection and the Bull 
Moose believes in protection regulated by a non- 
partisan tariff commission. And we farmers 
down here think a tariff should be put on Egyp- 
tian cotton. 

"Get busy, gentlemen, because if you do not 
give we defyt-ridden, gambling farmers, relief by 
taking the dead horse out of our spring branch, 
for the justice of the thing, you will see it is but 
natural for you to preserve yourselves, by taking 
him out. When you turn us down on this petition, 
and failure to give the relief is interpreted in ad- 
vance by us that you are unable under the name of 



Our Spring Branch 73 

Democrat to do so, we will then bury the name of 
Democrat under an avalanche of votes, and the 
Democrat party will be a thing of the past, like 
the name 'Republican,' and to get an office at the 
hands of the people each one will either have to 
join the Bull Moose party or the Republican party. 
You progressives with a little p can change to a 
big P, and you reactionaries can join the Republi- 
can party. Your failure, gentlemen, as a Demo- 
cratic administration, will mean good-bye, Demo- 
crat. Before I conclude, let me say I am giving 
you gentlemen notice, you being in power, in ask- 
ing for the relief. This dead horse proposition 
is a little yeast in Colquitt County, Georgia, and 
if we are not headed by you giving us the relief, 
we will then ask the State Progressive convention 
to stand sponsor for it, the Southern cotton 
farmer will get under it in all the cotton-growing 
states, and we will then ask the National Progres- 
sive party to give the relief. I believe if you 
Democrats in Congress were in power from the 
South with the Progressive party instead of being 
aligned with the 'Tory/ the relief would be 
granted, and I heartily hope it will be with your 
present alignment. I thank you, gentlemen, for 
the time I have taken. 

"Yours truly, "DAN F. LUKE." 



74 The Dead Horse in 



CHAPTER III. 

Farmer Dan Luke's Address Mailed to Woodrow 

Wilson, President of the United States, 

and His Cabinet. 

"Your Excellency — I include your cabinet (or 
advisers), because who could make an address to 
just one person? Then again, I want to compli- 
ment your Secretary of State, William J. Bryan. I 
like Mr. Bryan, and it is for the following: If 
all the money for operating purposes of commer- 
cial business were to disappear, like it did in 
1893, Mr. Bryan would issue the country some 
kind of money to do business on. He was right 
in 1893 when he said the country needed money to 
do business on; his Coin Harvey school may have 
taught a wrong theory about silver, but that was 
because Mr. Bryan did not see the truth. The 16 
to 1 business left Mr. Bryan, but, by hookery, my 
dead horse has not left my spring branch. The 
spinners are doing business thru the same cotton 
exchange. I have discussed this business in the 
previous chapters and call your direct attention 
to it ; it is a further matter for which I ask your 
attention. So, listen, let your Uncle Dan hand 
you a verse on Political Economy : 






Our Spring Branch 75 

"Mr. Wilson, you are a college president, and 
you cannot tell me what causes a trust. You say 
it is a combination to fix the prices, so that the 
combine can buy stuff too cheap and sell it too 
high. I say you haven't got it. You have given 
the result, not the cause. 

"What caused the Standard Oil trust? It was 
started because Mr. Rockefeller saw if he put in a 
proper system of marketing oil he would win. 

"What caused the sugar trust? The fact that 
the sugar farmer had no proper system of mar- 
keting, and the people who organized the sugar 
trust saw they would win. The sugar farmer is 
at the same old stand. Go and see. He sells his 
two thousand pounds of raw cane to the trust 
for $4.60, and the trust sells one hundred pounds 
of sugar for $4.60 by an up-to-date system of 
marketing sugar.- 

"What caused the turpentine trust the govern- 
ment put out of business within the last few 
weeks? It was caused from the fact that S. P. 
Shotter saw if he put on the proper system of 
marketing turpentine he would win. I remember 
full well when spirits of turpentine sold around 
22 cents per gallon, which was below cost of pro- 
duction. I remember full well when the American 
Naval Stores Company put on their system of 



76 The Dead Horse in 

marketing. The American Naval Stores Company 
is now out of business, and it is a conjecture what 
kind of combination will be brought forth to mar- 
ket this turpentine. You know there has got to 
be some kind of a combination by which this tur- 
pentine can be placed around over the world on 
what is called its market. You also know if you 
do away with the sugar trust and the oil trust that 
to get sugar and oil to the consumer there will 
have to spring up some new kind of a combina- 
tion to properly market this oil and sugar. Oil 
and turpentine will waste and evaporate, and 
sugar will deteriorate, and I don't see how the 
government can better benefit the producer and 
consumer except by regulating the business of the 
respective trusts. This problem is up to you, gen- 
tlemen, and will ultimately have to be solved by 
our government. Our nation has got a taste of 
progress and its people will not rest under any 
retrograde process. 

"What causes the money trust? It was not 
caused by financial institutions associating to- 
gether just to make money by buying too cheap 
and selling too high. It was a result that the rail- 
roads and other industrials had to have combina- 
tion thru which the money could be procured and 
enterprise financed to develop America. That is 



Our Spring Branch 77 

a market. This money trust is necessary, and if 
you do away with it some other combination will 
have to come into existence or there will be no 
market for industrial securities, and you would 
retrograde. Of course, this combination makes 
big money for itself, but in our age of progress 
these same people have advanced America within 
fifteen years fully the equivalent of thirty years. 
J. P. Morgan & Co., Mr. Baker and others are 
great people. Give them a good banking law like 
they demand. They know what the country needs 
from a commercial standpoint. Give us a good 
banking system to grow and expand by, and also 
provide proper regulations. I would suggest you 
give them the asset currency law as advocated by 
Mr. Douglas, of Massachusetts, and for granny's 
sake don't get mixed up in diddles and fiddles. 

"You see, asset currency is based on gold. You 
don't weaken the standard when you give them the 
good banking law; nor do you unduly inflate the 
currency. Pardon me, I am not trying to run the 
government. That is up to you. You see, I am a 
Progressive, in addition to seeing the truth. For- 
ever remember, gentlemen, the cause of a trust in 
any commodity is the lack of an intelligent system 
of marketinig that commodity. Therefore, you 
agree with me, where it is possible to give the pro- 



78 The Dead Horse in 

ducers and consumers relief from the necessary 
evils, that is, the evils that are man-made to over- 
come evils of environments, it is the duty of the 
government to ameliorate the severity of the nec- 
essary evils. You have never read this in your 
educated political economy, but you see the wis- 
dom of it. Seek wisdom, Solomon says, for your 
Uncle Dan has put it right under your shirts, no 
doubt about that. Every business man and farmer 
in America will say, hurrah for Dan. You say, 
Hurrah! Honest confession is good for the soul! 
"Surely we are now up against the dead horse 
in our spring branch. You can approach him 
from any angle and smell him before you touch 
him. Is there a trust? The cotton industry was 
the first victim of the trust. This is the oldest 
and biggest trust. He is international. He is a 
whopper, but he is necessary. All you can do is 
to regulate him. In bygone days, when the cot- 
ton farmer was not so much a victim to 'business/ 
when he made his shoes and clothing at home, this 
same octopus of a trust devised a system to han- 
dle the purchasing end of its business and insti- 
tuted this cotton exchange system of naming the 
price to Mr. Cotton Farmer. This octopus is a 
natural trust, for there had to be some way of 
marketing cotton goods. In the last few years 



Our Spring Branch 79 

this giant has been fleeced out of considerable by 
the professional gambler operating on the ex- 
change, and he now thinks it might be well to let 
the exchange go by and he will then turn himself 
directly loose onto the cotton farmer. He cusses 
the exchange gambler. This gambler is our spoke 
in the cobweb, but he is not adequate. He gam- 
bles in future and in spot cotton, and the 2,900 
farmers out of 3,000 seldom feel his magic touch. 
The real patriot, the 2,900, have to part with their 
cotton, and these spot gamblers hold that part 
they get hold of until they get the profit. 

"Now, in conclusion, we gree that you cannot 
abolish him because this trust has offices in Liver- 
pool, England, out of your jurisdiction, but, gen- 
tlemen, you can give us the relief that will be ad- 
equate and fair. Provide this farmer with a cur- 
rency by means of which he can at least market 
his cotton as needed by the trust and thereby let 
the laborer get the pay for his labor by at least 
getting for his cotton that part the gambler is 
now getting. Six hundred million dollars is more 
cash money than is carried in New York city. The 
banks in the South loan full up to their reserves 
to carry on the business in their territory, and 
when this distress cotton appears on the market 
everything is chockablock. There is not enough 



80 



The Dead Horse in 



money to be spared out of the reserves to loan the 
farmer to liquidate his pressing needs, and not 
sell his cotton under distress. 

"Cotton does not waste or evaporate, nor does 
cotton deteriorate when stored, and what it costs 
to produce a pound of cotton can be made sounder 
than gold itself by simply putting eighty per cent 
of what it costs to make a pound so that the 
farmer can borrow it at a living rate of interest, 
liquidating his debts of commerce. This will en- 
able him to market his cotton intelligently. 

"Do you hear what I say? There is a cotton 
trust, and when you propose to ameliorate its 
hardships upon us, you will see, altho there is a 
fine profit left to the cotton industry, as a whole, 
if cotton should bring fifty per cent more than it 
has ever brought the farmer, this octopus will 
show up before you. If you don't know where he 
is at in your jurisdiction, just read the relief in 
a proper bill one time, and he will come out of 
hiding. Will you do this — will you give us the 
relief? The prayers of Dan Luke are that you 
will. "Yours truly, 

"DAN F. LUKE." 



Our Spring Branch 81 



THE MAN WITHOUT ENEMIES. 

"He has no enemies, you say ; 

My friend, your boast is poor. 
He who hath mingled in the fray 

Of duty, that the brave endure 
Must have foes. If he has none, 
Small is the work that he has done. 

He has hit no traitor on the hip, 

He has cast no sup from the perjured lip; 
He has never turned the wrong to right, 
He has been a coward in the fight. 



82 The Dead Horse in 



CHAPTER IV. 

Dan Luke's Address to the Farmers. 

"Dear Sirs : Think, Resolve, and then Act. It 
takes these three essentials in business. Do not 
only think, but think, resolve, and act. Read the 
book, "The Dead Horse in Our Spring Branch/' 
and then act. If you are willing to be a soldier 
read this book to others at your gatherings and 
ask all to help. I think the book is worth the 
money and should be in every farmer's home. If 
you are ready to be organized in case the Demo- 
cratic party, being in full power of the Govern- 
ment, does not give us the relief by taking the 
dead horse out of our spring branch, then fill out 
the letter, which can be torn out of the back of 
this book, and mail it to F. J. Bivins, Secretary, 
Moultrie, Ga. We are not fighting only for our 
good, but also that our children to follow us may 
have a better showing than we have had. To 
show you that we should organize I will discuss 
political parties. 

Discussion on Political Parties. 

"When paramount issues arise political parties 
are supposed to stand for these issues. In the 



Our Spring Branch 83 

past there has been two dominant political par- 
ties, Eepublican and Democrat. Let us recall how 
the paramount issues of these parties were pitted 
against each other. Abraham Lincoln took as 
his paramount issue that slavery should be abol- 
ished from the United States, and the Republican 
party got behind him and this question became 
the paramount issue of that party. The Slave 
Owners naturally took the opposite side, and went 
Lincoln one better, which was, since Lincoln was 
elected President on the issues before the country 
they would not negotiate to part with the slaves 
on a money basis, but would draw out of Lincoln's 
government and start a government of their own 
and keep slavery anyhow. Many of you remem- 
ber the stump speaking and voting in Georgia 
on this question, how Georgia did not secede on 
first go down, but was later inflamed by these 
stump speakers (whom you remember full well) 
and voted for secession. Don't misunderstand 
me ,1 am Southern born to the grit ; old man Luke, 
my beloved father, and old man Bivins (Martin's 
grandfather), voted in these elections against 
secession, knowing it was not the proper course, 
but each toed the m&rk on the firing line, my 
father in the battles of Virginia and Martin's 
grandfather in resisting the march of Sherman. 



84 The Dead Horse in 

"The Secession side lost and we could not help 
it. This war was fought fifty years ago. After 
the war the carpet baggers, as we call them, gave 
the conquered states a great deal of trouble and 
we lined up against them, and we put them out, 
calling our white primaries Democrat. Now 
there are certain Catholic organizations in the 
North, of which Tammany Hall in New York City 
is leading exponent, raised the issue of holding 
local offices up there and they call themselves 
Democrats. Both sides fought the Republicans 
in National elections, we for white supremacy in 
the South and Tammany Hall for the Devil's sake, 
I reckon. Divine Providence abolished slavery — 
the Republican and negro combine in the South 
is no longer a menace. The issues of the Repub- 
lican and Democrat parties thrived on is a 
thing of the past. A new party is sprung up to 
meet the issues of today — the Progressive (Bull 
Moose) party. The Progressive Party is so sin- 
cere in its paramount issue, which is a fight for 
better conditions for men, women and children — 
recognizing our contention of white supremacy in 
the South; one of its conditions of a better right 
is for a better system of marketing farm prod- 
ucts. What is a Tory? He is a man who goes 
into politics to get the office ; this is a true defini- 



Our Spring Branch 85 

tion of a Tory. There is no office that Dan F. 
Luke or F. J. Bivins want or expect, but watch 
how the Tories will flam us. 

"The paramount issue with us today is Bread 
and Butter. If the call should be made upon you 
to organize, which side will you fall on — that of 
the Tory or that of Bread and Butter? If you 
say Bread and Butter then mail the letter to 
F. J. Bivins, Secretary. 

"The only place to remove the dead horse is at 
Washington, and in event the exposure and peti- 
tion in this book does not lift him out, we will 
then proceed to prize him out. Get busy, boys, 
for I am fearful we will have to organize. For 
these old Tory parties have never given us what 
they promised. Write to Bivins today and have 
others to write, sending in their names. 

"We are not going to take soft soap from a 
Tory in the shape of speeches, for only the dead 
horse taken out will satisfy us. Your fellow 
yoker, Dan F. Luke, will jump his length if the 
Democrat party will take this dead horse out. 
// they can do so the horse will be out before the 
crop of 1913 is distressed; if they can't take him 
out the sooner we go to prizing the better. Now 
my dear brother, we must get in shape to prize, 



86 The Dead Horse in 

so send in names promptly so that we can organ- 
ize promptly. 

"Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Munsey say every 
person in this abundant land of ours is justly 
entitled to a good house to live in and a fair share 
of the luxuries of life. You and me say that 
the farmers as a whole can not have even the 
necessaries of life unless this dead horse is taken 
out, and when we get him out maybe we can have 
what Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Munsey say we are 
entitled to have. 

"I pledge you my broad axe up to the hilt that 
when we organize the Progressive party will be 
the whitest white man's party that Georgia has 
ever seen. Do not listen to the Torys and the 
hired Tory newspapers or Tory newspaper edi- 
tors. Let's have a log rolling. If the Congress- 
men at Washington from the cotton belt don't 
give us relief, we should put people there who 
have as their paramount issue, Take the dead 
horse out of our Spring Branch, and we should be 
organized by January 1st, 1914. 

"Action, boys, is needed. Do not be timid, the 
timid never attain the top. Send in your name to 
be a soldier, for if it is not a dead horse in our 
spring branch it is a jackass. 



Our Spring Branch 87 

"Bread and Butter is the paramount issue — 
who is put to the scratch to get it, me and you. 
It is good business we are after and all good bus- 
iness will back us, but corrupt business will fight 
us. Don't be timid; will you be a soldier? 
"Yours till death, 

"DAN F. LUKE." 

"LET US PRAY." 

"0, Lord, we beseech Thee to hear your Dan 
Lukes and Bill Bryants. The Democrat Tories 
from the South have on the free list my cow hide, 
the wool off my sheep, my cane, potatoes, fence 
posts and other tree products, my cotton, and 
everything else that I can grow or procure to 
sell; they have the tariff on my shoes, my cloth- 
ing, my hat, my pocket knife, and on practically 
everything that I buy. 

"You see, Lord, these Tories have joined 
their confederates and put their tariff for revenue 
only upon us. I have to sell all my stuff on the 
cheapest market, and the things I buy I have to 
buy on the highest market. Now, this tariff for 
revenue only is unfairly against me, and I think 
if the stuff I sell is on the free list that the stuff 
I buy should be duty free, and vice versa ; if I 
have to pay the tariff on the stuff I buy for reve- 



88 The Dead Horse in 

nue only to run the government, this tariff should 
go around so that I can have a better market for 
stuff I sell I think if we get the revenue to run 
the government by the use of the tariff at all, 
that my cow hide, my sheep, my cotton, should 
have my share of protection, and that these equi- 
ties should be adjusted by a non-partisan tariff 
commission. You see, Lord, that not only the 
robber tariff of the Republican party but also this 
tariff for revenue only put on us by these Demo- 
crat Tories is against us. I am Bull Moose, Pro- 
gressive, on this tariff question from the top of 
my head to the bottom of my feet. I feel, Lord, 
that these 'Jackscrat' Tories are not represent- 
ing your Dan Lukes and Bill Bryants. I feel that 
there is some powerful interest that controls the 
big daily and weekly newspapers of this state, and 
that these Tories are relying upon these news- 
papers to continue to back them up in politically 
exploiting the people. My Merciful Father, help 
your Dan Luke, to catch and expose this combine 
of this interest with the Tory newspapers and 
Tory politicians, so that the light of publicity will 
enable the citizens to correct this evil. I feel that 
this same interest is an offspring of that giant 
trust that first put "the dead horse in our spring 
branch," and that this offspring almost has a 



Our Spring Branch 89 

deadly hold upon our business; it is to Thee we 
come and we humbly beseech Thy guidance. I 
thank Thee for having revealed unto your Dan 
Luke the truth about this matter, that the dead 
horse is at the root of our evils, and I ask that Thy 
strong arm uphold him and all who hereafter be- 
come soldiers, in this great battle for Your 
humanity — men, women, and children. 

"We especially ask Thee to surround us with 
absolute personal control of ourselves in this 
movement of uplift, and that all of our soldiers 
can restrain their wrath for personal violence 
towards their foe — the Tories, the Tory news- 
papers, and this secret enemy, and settle their 
grievances at the ballot box. We especially thank 
Thee for revealing to Dan Luke that we can cor- 
rect these evils at the ballot box and that it is to 
the ballot box that Thou would have us go. 

"Now, Father, when Thou hast wreaked 
Thy vengeance upon this Tory combine with this 
secret interest, we ask Thee to forgive them and 
have mercy upon their souls." 



LETTER TO BE MAILED. 

F. J. Bivins, Secretary, 
Moultrie, Ga. 

Dear Sir: I am willing to help organize my 
district and county upon advices from you that 
the fight is on to get the dead horse out of the 
farmers' spring branch, and to see that delegates 
from my county are selected to meet with dele- 
gates from yours and other counties, or states, 
to work for the end of the necessity of working 
together. 

Yours Truly, 

Name 

P. O. Address 

County 

P. S. I will read my book to others and be a 
soldier with the "Hosts at Armageddon battling 
for the Lord." 



JUN 20 1913 



